The Morgan was introduced in the early 1900s as the "poor man's sports car," Tessmer said, and tens of thousands of them were sold in Europe.

In Britain it was taxed as a motorcycle, rather than a car, which made it much more affordable. The older models used a British V-twin motorcycle engine.

S&S makes engines for custom bikes, along with engine parts and accessories. It also rebuilds Harley-Davidson engines sent to the company from Harley dealerships.

S&S worked with the Morgan's current manufacturer for about a year to design the new vehicle's drivetrain, which uses an S&S V-twin engine.

A few thousand of the new cars have been sold in Europe, and the manufacturer is gearing up to build many more once they land in the United States this fall.

"They have been buying a lot of engines and are building a lot of cars," Tessmer said.

The Morgan will sell for about $40,000 here through a chain of dealerships. Fully street legal, it has a top speed of about 100 mph.

For S&S, the British sports car could help fill an empty spot in its business left from the demise of some custom motorcycle companies.

The custom bike-building market isn't what it used to be, according to Tessmer, partly because it was slammed by the recession.

"One of the problems is banks don't want to lend money to build a custom motorcycle now," he said. "It's expensive and risky. The bank doesn't know what this thing is going to be worth when it's finished."

That's in sharp contrast to years ago, when custom bikes were hot sellers, partly because there was a shortage of factory-made Harley-Davidsons in the early 1990s.

"At one time, we were supplying engines to everybody and his brother," Tessmer said. "There was a big vacuum in the market that was filled by entrepreneurs who built custom bikes. That's when S&S came out with its engine. We were in the right place at the right time."

About Rick Barrett

Rick Barrett covers manufacturing, telecom and agriculture. He has received Best in Business awards from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers and was co-recipient of a Barlett & Steele award for investigative business journalism.